One last response from brandon after reading the rest of this thread.
I have nothing to hide and carry no secrets. I talk to the customer as I tune their car 90% of the time. I let them watch, answer all questions and concerns. At no time will I ever say I know everything cause at that point is where I will begin to fail. You learn everyday, something is always different. We all are human and need to step up for what we do at all times
I talked to Andrew about using a timing device for the nitrous system along with the controller he has. It was not on the car when I was there to tune it. I told him the pro’s and con’s of everything and I was only able to work with what I had. The car was brought to the dyno day already setup ready to go as-is. I did not have the time nor supplies to make a timing tricker at that point. It was agreed that the minor amount (read less than 10hp) loss from the timing being taken out at all times was acceptable. Day to day I would like to have seen that car in the 26 degree range for best torque and power but I was also told that when the car was going to be raced it would be on spray so the NA numbers weren’t a true concern. I was at the mercy of the parts and car that was given to me at the time of the dyno. It would have been nice for the car to have a timing device so that the controllers could be adjusted at any point in time so the nitrous hit size could be changed after the tune was done and not locked into a certain amount.
There are areas that visually could be smoothed out however when the car is driving down the road it is not hitting those cells. There is a fine line between pretty and functional. However, more timing ( in certain areas) is not always better. Cruising around large cam’d lsx motors do not like a ton of advance or drivability issues arise. WOT the timing could be advanced for sure in NA situations but there was no controller to take it out when sprayed. Also, when only taking the time to dyno tune a car and not go out testing at the track with plug chops and reading its always best to error slightly on the safe side. Once again we are talking minor amounts of power here and we aren’t racing at a pro stock level. I know everyone strives for the max power available for their parts but im sure we all agree that last 5hp will not make a break a race if it means adding longevity to the combo.
Your welcome andrew.
I wanted to step in because I got a call the day the motor in ryan’s car let go and I then asked right away “did they determine the cause” when i was told “it was 1000ft out and just gave up the ghost”. Its always a sinking feeling for a tuner on any level to hear that a customer has an engine or transmission related problem. However, it is worse when the telephone game starts long before a root cause is determined. We all know how hearsay takes off and gets changed. The power of the internet can be feast or famine for anyone. It does not bother me that people want to speak their opinion or that we all have our two cents, just begins to bug me when information is spit out from third or later hand accounts. I always prefer people to speak their mind and fully accept at times the truth hurts but false information hurts worse.
A bad tune can beat the bearing right out that is true. Although with a cast piston like the LSx motors have they will long powder away to nothing before you knock a bearing out. If it were a forged motor I would agree more.
Quoted for truth! But make sure you dont confuse carbon specs with detonation.
In the awd tbss its such a common thing for the rod bearings to spin its sick, especially the #5 and #6. Keeping up with oil changes and putting in a little extra oil is about the only thing you can do for the trucks. There are a few people who have modded the awd pan and done some external oiling tricks but since the front diff goes through the oil pan its not an easy swap. Its hard to spend $2000+ for the oil pan, oil mods and labor and not do anything else performance. Also, people look at you funny when you have an SUV with an accusump on it.
Spitting a rod out of a motor is never a good thing. Its far less common with a cast rod and PM rod like the LSx unless something major went wrong. I have only had 2 customer cars in 9 years spit a stock rod out of an LS motor and both were getting hit with over 400hp worth of nitrous off the footbrake from idle. It was dumb and it was agreed it was no where near safe but we were trying to max out the car the best we could. Both times the rod bent in half then finally snapped. We just went far outside the rhelm of what the stock parts could handle and knew we were on borrowed time everytime.
Motor is still in the truck. Im sure the piston will have some carbon build up like any other DD would. At 80k+ on an ls2 im sure the walls will look fine and at most need a slight hone to take the small ridge off the top of the bore. I do fear the condition of the crank and rod though knowing the heat a spun rod bearing creates. Once again its just a matter of when not if.